EPA tests find water OK in village's wells

DIMOCK, Pa. - Testing at 20 more water wells in a northeastern Pennsylvania community at the center of a debate over the safety of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale shows no dangerous levels of contamination, according to a report issued Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA had already tested 11 wells in Dimock, showing the presence of sodium, methane, chromium or bacteria in six wells before the results of the latest testing.

Three of the newly tested wells showed methane, while one showed barium well above the EPA's maximum level, but a treatment system installed in the well is removing the substance, an EPA spokesman said.

Featured in the documentary "Gasland," the Susquehanna County village of Dimock has been at the center of a fierce debate over drilling, in particular the process of hydraulic fracturing, which involves injecting water and chemicals deep underground to free trapped natural gas.

State environmental regulators previously determined that Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. contaminated the aquifer under houses along Carter Road in Dimock with explosive levels of methane gas, although they later determined the company had met its obligation to provide safe drinking water.

The EPA is still providing drinking water to three homes where prior tests showed contamination. A Cabot spokesman said Friday that the "data confirms the earlier EPA finding that levels of contaminants found do not possess a threat to human health and the environment."

"Importantly, the EPA again did not indicate that those contaminants that were detected bore any relationship to oil and gas development in the Dimock area ..." the statement said.